20-I-2025.
Shift in the US today, „exit stiff, enter blimp“, as Tovar on burundi would say.
Yesterday the beans finally had their turn on the plate, after having an array of paprikaš and gulaš and sarma... And fuck, the smoked ribs we bought in Mere had a weird whiff while cooked, something like yesterday's fish, actually rot... But okay, we ate it, the stuff evaporated in the pot, not too bad in the plate. Must have been refrozen or a remainder from that batch from Argentina a few years ago.
Spoke with Nina and then Go in the evening. Everything regular at the former, still doing things around the house, or planning what to do next. And we finally heard the situation with Mark... He now began to like sitting at home, became popular again, reconnected with both friends and family, and what he announced that he planned to move in with her, or that they should buy a farm in Ohio, is not mentioned any more, he just thought he'd drop by for a couple more weeks soon... in a month or two, maybe in may? And last year he spend a few major holidays at home alone, online with her. There, she fixed him and suddenly he's fine where he is. At that, fuckit, a true Amer - still owes 40000$ of student loan and 10000 for the car (some merc I think) which is already worth less.
At least the langoš was a success, Sanda swept her plate.
Go and Stanley are okay, sales of parts are proceeding smoothly, he needs to drive one beemer to the shop to put spare wheels no it, for he sold the current set. Neša showed up briefly, just to sell his latest pun, and ran off. Anita was in the frame often, but no text. They ran out of rakija, so I memorized the need to check on the van, drive it one round just to see whether the battery needs recharging, will need it... when they come for more.
Put together the bills to pay for this month. Everyone else sends them printed, only Jetel insists on paperless, sends it in email. The printer is in the bedroom, mostly turned off (power strip holds the gugolj, and the light and air pump for the aquarium). I usually copy the peedyeff to a fleška (flash drive :) and take it there, unplug the pump, plug the printer in, hook it into gugolj, print, put wires back. Which is a lot of work, the machine is old and slow, takes two minutes to notice the thumbdrive, open the file and send it to printer. I haven't plugged the printer into zmajček ever since I got the linux on it, I'm loathe to mess with the installation, who knows what may it report missing - the printer is also twelve years old. But okay, let's try that... plugged it into a power strip, ewesbee into the box, turned it on, opened the peedyeff, clicked print, and voila, printer is already there, installed invisibly and printed it right away.
For lunch we had yesterday's beans to reheat, and decided that it now stank worse than yesterday when it was cooked... The cats will be delighted. One czar scrambled eggs (one eggs, nice) and... there, although the lunch was replaced within warranty, we were done with it by 12:20. Not even the outhouse is too far if you start early. After lunch we went to pay them bills and buy what we wanted. Hell we did, barely half. First I couldn't park by detelina, chock full, then in front of the local community [center], so I made about face a bit down the street and parked behind it. There she went to pay, and I ran into Staša... carrying three apples in a bag. Said he was downtown for something and swung this way to get the apples, but the grocer was closed, it's their slava, got these from a supermarket. I wasn't any luckier with the serekeš, it's the bills' due date, so it wasn't filled. And Najka also didn't have cat food. That kind of day.
She cooked the „bečkerek secret“, per her reverse engineered recipe from Domaćin (of 20-VI-2020., which they had only that year), a three days' dose. When we spoke with Lena in the evening, and told her the sad story of stinking ribs and this consolation prize, and she wanted some too. Well, will make more for sunday, will bring it. The jar where I keep the dry cranberries will now be the transportation vessel. Tanja is now routinely flipping from supine to prostrate and back, left and right, and almost crawling... where she doesn't quite raise her butt, but has some way to push off with her leg. One leg. Not the first one who invented that.
On the evening of 21st, at 21:30 exactly, I congratulated her on our 52nd anniversary... (... 127 words...) The conclusion was that we shouldn't drink so often. Outside, there was some snow, which almost thawed by lunchtime.
On twonythird we decided to go shopping, but more for walk's sake. From what we planned, there was a drop by the paintshop (sponge sandpaper, a spatula), Rerso (it says Pepco if you read it as latinic, but why would Kardelj's wife Pepca be there, specially in vocative, which doesn't exist in slovenian) to buy more nappies for Tanja, to visit the butcher (in Roda - one bovine tongue and a set of butkice, trotters and ears for pihtije) and a photo safari. What didn't work was a visit to the serekeš - still empty. On the shot are it, in the front wall of the Gomex's supermarket, where I practically never go in. Did for a while, was buying distilled water for dad, but afterwards maybe once or twice. They may be three generations away, but the ghost of the space remains, filled with the NuProm's mindset, the same dickhurt and... nothing for me there. Also failed to buy coffee in Lidl, as they just ran out of the one we buy. They have the next more expensive [one], which we don't really like. Well, I won't run your treadmill, even the Grand's [one] from the can is better than this. Generally, Lidl seems to have some newagerly adgaynda (imagine this spoken with a very long and open second syllable), the dry meat is going thinner and thinner, the assortment of fresh meat is shrinking, the canned meat is fish only... Ciao. The regular cost of visit there used to be 9-13000, this time it was 334 dinars. She put the pihtije to simmer as soon as we got home.
Spoke with Nina in the evening, status regular and not much news, except they have a large reorganization at work, because few months ago there was a decision to switch the company to which the billing was outsourced, which turned out much more entangled than it seemed in the beginning, as they are all tied to each other and six more companies... The swich was planned for end of october, then november... the dress rehearsal is now. The other thing is that her Volvo's status is „starts, goes“, with new jingling sounds every few days, or some sensor reports misfiring cylinder and the engine is okay, it's the sensor that's bad...
Twonyforth. The pihtije seem even stronger than any previous batch... Prbably because it cooked with the bone from the butkica, and one of the trotters being from an older specimen. I'm already hungry as I write this...
General strike. One of those days which I spend sitting and refreshing a handful of pages, including burundi, and tracking what's going on. Here, in Belgrade „there's almost no traffic, and on friday mornings I usually have to close all windows because the traffic noise is unbearable, now nothing, a lonely car passes at times. an august sunday afternoon“ as Plačkica reports on burundi. Around 12:40 I asked Lena how's the view (their terraces face Ušće and Brankov bridge), and she sent a short video with „we'll join them in a few minutes“. And really, 20 minutes later, there they were on a video, Tanja with the nanny, and Api, and a river of people going down the road.
On saturday, 25th, we spoke with Nina again and this time we saw all the grandchildren, as we watched the cooking show. Lena invented that format of video talk at least eight years ago, she'd park the phone or tablet on the shelf above the oven, and talk with us while cooking. Then it spread. Um, this time every couple of minutes one of the kids would come to take yet another pancake, hence the quorum.
On sunday I had trouble with sleep, in reverse. After yet another entertaining evening, we finished what tutifruti remained in the bottle and switched to pear, and that's where it got interesting so we returned to bed quite late. And then, as it happens to me recently, after some four hours of sleep I had to visit the bathroom, twice, and by then my tear glands shifted into second and my nose filled, the cavity swelled and filled (cause... fuckmeifIknow, it occurred even before I started bluepilling, and it was actually more frequent and lasted longer then, ten years ago), and then there's no sleep until I wash my face and nose thoroughly, which wakes me up. So I sat and started reading the news, more photos and news from yesterday. I see this Radaković guy, director of the gimnazija, whose father I remember was the president of the municipality and we, the club, were shooting many public events, has given the names of all the students who took part in the blockade (he's got no idea who were they, he just collected all those who were either presidents of their class, members of the student parliament or delegated to attend staff meetings). He tried to address the gathering in front of the gimnazija but he was cordially whistled away. The news is he's resigning, soon, he just announced it.
Tried for a nap after lunch, didn't work.. Awake as if I slept for ten hours.
Unexpectedly fair weather for this time of year... and we arrived at Belgrade right on time, what with road being half empty, and me finding a parking slot on first try. We were loaded a bit heavier this time, with „bečkerečka secret“ in the beet jar, eggs and what clothes she bought for Tanja. We passed Milan at the appartment door, he was just taking out the garbage and Api for a walk. Tanja was asleep when we arrived, so I tried to sleep once or twice, but didn't work again. When she woke up, it was a really merry time, despite her being silent first half an hour, until she fully woke. And then she started her giggling and shouts of joy, and I taking pictures. This is about the time when the daylight is a whole hour longer than on winter solstice, so I had a better light, not lifting the flash at all. And eventually caught my fifteen minutes' nap, on the couch, just what I missed. Tanja is already crawling, though without lifting her butt, uses knees and elbows but not all for at once. Still gets where she wants, much faster than two weeks ago.
Got home with the now regular visit to Mere (they had čvarci again, and njeguška sausage, which were absent a while; cat food was also gone for a few weeks, back now... tab turned around 6900). Dined on pihtije without bread, the half slice I parked in a box simply didn't have the taste nor the texture. The pihtije were excellent, far above regular, firm, you stick a fork and it stands, almost like švargla but without gelatine, pepper and other spice added.
Dragana again failed to reach me on the mobile, it turned off its modem at some point in the last four hours, which happens at times, and she has the luck to call when it happens. Regardless, got us on the landline, and made me promise to bring fresh pictures of Tanja in the phone, she wants to see her. So okay, I went on processing the shots, and that's where I gave up, just lied on the couch and fainted.
I slept entirely unconscious for less than two hours when Go called. She wasn't cooking, but rather making some table mats, to put under the plates instead of having a whole tablecloth (now that they have a table even Neša maneuvers his sleeping to be present, so at least once they sit and eat together). Stanley was away, went to move one of his neglected cars, which was sitting for too long in front of a friend's house, and finally someone reported it, and sherrif wrote a hand notice on the windshield to move it within three days or else it'll be taken away and then the daily charges would accumulate... His dad fell in his apartment, twice, and broke his hip, and it seems he also had two strokes (as they say here, passed the rookie and the apprentice, waiting for majstor). The surgery is over, and already can sit, it seems he got metal reinforcement. The damage he caused meanwhile is to be seen, he dented someone's car maneuvering, because he can't see anything, he's a hamster and gathers junk he buys at charity shops and yard sales, what social aid he receives he spends on storage rental for what he acquired before, though maybe he gave up on some of that already, as the extra money he was earning as piano player in bars is now questionable, he can't play as well as before, must be the apprentice. The remaining place to gather junk is the car, where it already occupies even the space under the pedals, the space on other seats being full to the roof, of course he can't maneuver right. One if his brothers visited him in hospital (two of four still alive, twins at that), after years of not wanting to know about him.
Out of these five guys only two kids remain - Stanley and a niece from one of dead uncles.
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* actually „ostav'“, for „ostavi“, imperative form of ostaviti, to leave, drop. It's a military command, meaning „stop, do again from the start“.
Mentions: 20-VI-2020., Anita Jennifer Berger (Anita), Api, burundi, butkice, čvarci, detelina, Domaćin, Dragana Vitas (Dragana), gimnazija, Gorana Sredljević (Go), gugolj, Jelena Sredljević (Lena), majstor, Mark Anderson, Milan Nastić, Nenad Berger (Neša), Nevena Sredljević (Nina), NuProm, pihtije, rakija, Sanda Sredljević Aquilla (Sanda), sarma, serekeš, slava, Stanley Berger, Stanoje Serdarević (Staša), švargla, Tanja Nastić, tutifruti, zmajček, in serbian
20-I-2025 - 1-X-2025